Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution [Hardcover]

Ronald Bailey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Bailey's mastery of the arguments, and his roster of the best people to talk to, are second to none." -- Matt Ridley, author of Genome, Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human and The Red Queen: Sex and Evolution of Human Nature.

"...neither minces words nor shrinks from a good rumble,...that is what makes Liberation Biology so engaging and powerful." -- Greg Stock, author of Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future.

"...provides the closely reasoned analysis that,...ought to guide public policy with respect to biotechnology an bioengineering." -- Arthur Caplan, The Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Director, Center for Bioethics University of Pennsylvania

Product Description

A positive, optimistic, and convincing case that the biotechnology revolution will improve our lives and the future of our children The 21st century will undoubtedly witness unprecedented advances in understanding the mechanisms of the human body and in developing biotechnology. With the mapping of the human genome, the pace of discovery is now on the fast track. By the middle of the century we can expect that the rapid progress in biology and biotechnology will utterly transform human life. What was once the stuff of science fiction may now be within reach in the not-too-distant future: 20-to-40-year leaps in average life spans, enhanced human bodies, drugs and therapies to boost memory and speed up mental processing, and a genetic science that allows parents to ensure that their children will have stronger immune systems, more athletic bodies, and cleverer brains. Even the prospect of human immortality beckons.

Such scenarios excite many people and frighten or appall many others. Already biotechnology opponents are organizing political movements aimed at restricting scientific research, banning the development and commercialization of various products and technologies, and limiting citizens’ access to the fruits of the biotech revolution.

In this forward-looking book Ronald Bailey, science writer for Reason magazine, argues that the coming biotechnology revolution, far from endangering human dignity, will liberate human beings to achieve their full potentials by enabling more of us to live flourishing lives free of disease, disability, and the threat of early death. Bailey covers the full range of the coming biotechnology breakthroughs, from stem-cell research to third-world farming, from brain-enhancing neuropharmaceuticals to designer babies. Against critics of these trends, who forecast the nightmare society of Huxley’s Brave New World, Bailey persuasively shows in lucid and well-argued prose that the health, safety, and ethical concerns raised by worried citizens and policymakers are misplaced.

Liberation Biology makes a positive, optimistic, and convincing case that the biotechnology revolution will improve our lives and the future of our children, while preserving and enhancing the natural environment.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 332 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (January 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591022274
• ISBN-13: 978-1591022275
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #599,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Libertarian Case for Biotechnology, September 4, 2005

By	Larry Arnhart (DeKalb, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution (Hardcover)

This is a clear and vigorous statement of the libertarian position on biotechnology. Bailey argues for "liberation biology" as "the earthly quest to overcome the physical and mental limitations imposed on us by nature, enabling us to flourish as never before."

Bailey insists that the technological manipulation of nature to satisfy human desires has been part of human life at least since the development of civilization based on agriculture. Using biotechnology to enhance human nature--to promote our physical and mental health and to extend our life span--is a continuation of this ancient human effort to conquer nature by articial means.

Although he recognizes the need for some legal regulation to secure the safety and efficacy of biotech products and to protect against force and fraud, Bailey prefers to leave adults free to decide for themselves (and their children) whether to employ biotechnology to enhance life. People will make mistakes. But they will learn by trial and error what uses of biotech are desirable and what not. Some people will decide to avoid such biotech advancements--following in the tradition of the Amish and other groups that choose to restrict their reliance on technology.

In arguing for this libertarian position, Bailey attacks both the bioconservatives (such as Francis Fukuyama and Leon Kass) and the Leftist bioluddites (such as Jeremy Rifkin and Bill McKibben).

I find Bailey's reasoning generally persuasive, although I think that at some points he exaggerates the power of biotech for changing human nature. He appeals to the natural human desires as the moral motivation for biotech--for example, the natural desire of parents to care for the health and happiness of their children. It's hard for me to see how biotech is going to alter, or even abolish, those desires. (I have elaborated this point in my book DARWINIAN CONSERVATISM.)

Bailey has a clear argument that is forcefully presented. He has made a great contribution to the continuing debate over biotechnology and the future of human nature.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, September 21, 2009

By	Natasha Vita-More - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution (Hardcover)

Ronald Bailey presents both a sensible investigation into human enhancement technologies and an inviting discourse that is better written and more thoroughly researched than most books on the same topic. Bailey does not skirt issues and does not cut and paste information. If you want knowledge that is pertinent and from a voice of logic - read this book!

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bailey should have picked a better publisher, November 15, 2006

By	M. A. Plus "Advanced Atheist" (Mayer, Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution (Hardcover)

"Liberation Biology" (LB) reminds me of blogger Glenn Reynolds's futurist tract, "An Army of Davids," in that both cover similar material from a soft libertarian viewpoint. While I found both books pretty pedestrian, I think LB should have sold at least as well as Reynolds's book because Bailey and Reynolds have attracted comparably sized followings on the Web. Instead LB fell dead-born from the press and into obscurity.

I suspect the Prometheus curse accounts for Bailey's relative failure. Prometheus Books often publishes some very good stuff, especially its critiques of religious and paranormal beliefs. But I notice that its titles usually don't do that well commercially, much less appear in paperback editions a year or two later. Sam Harris, author of two surprisingly best selling attacks on religious belief, apparently noticed this problem, so he avoided Prometheus when he went shopping for mainstream publishers of his books that unexpectedly made him a pile of money and turned him into the public face of atheism in the U.S.

LB also seems a bit like a cut-and-paste job from Bailey's writings on Reason magazine's Website and other online venues. I get the impression that Reynolds put together his book in a similar fashion. I don't have a problem with writing a book that way, as such. But if you've read Bailey's works online for a few years, the contents of his book will look recycled to you.

The title, "Liberation Biology," also feels "wrong" coming from a small-l libertarian like Bailey. In the Preface on page 12, Bailey rationalizes his choice of title by writing:

"In the twentieth century, liberation theology was a spiritual movement aimed at helping humanity to overcome political and economic oppression. In the twenty-first century, liberation biology is the earthly quest to overcome the physical and mental limitations imposed on us by nature, enabling us to flourish as never before."

Even though liberation theology has a strong MARXIST component and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have held it in suspicion for that very reason? I would expect a leftist transhumanist like James Hughes to draw an analogy to a Catholic-Marxist syncretism for rhetorical purposes; but not a free-market advocate like Bailey. (In fairness, however, Hughes's effort at transhumanist outreach, "Citizen Cyborg," has hardly taken the publishing world by storm, either.)

Beside, we already have a name other than "liberation biology" for "the earthly quest to overcome the physical and mental limitations imposed on us by nature, enabling us to flourish as never before." We call this "earthly quest" transhumanism, which Bailey mentions in three places early on in LB, but he seems strangely reluctant to use it to describe his fundamentally similar world view.

Bailey does a workmanlike job of arguing for the currently socially acceptable goals of transhumanist thinking, but only that. His writing lacks the energy and moral fervor I'd like to see in making the case for these exceedingly powerful ideas. LB should have sold at least as well as comparable books about the scientific transformation of the human condition, but Prometheus Books' kiss of death probably doomed it from the start.